Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 235 - Design Lessons with Jon Perry Tabletop and video game designer Jon Perry joins us for a discussion of the tabletop design lessons that inspire his own work. Check out the GDC talk that inspired the episode here: https://gdcvault.com/play/1035154/How-Tabletop-Design-Helped-Sh...
Oct 08, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 239
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 234 - Deckbuilding 101 and Dominion Pete and Brendan dig into one of the most popular mechanisms in modern gaming: deckbuilding? Why is it so popular? How does a deckbuilding decision space flip engine building on its head? For today's Deckbuilding 101 class, we of course use Domi...
Oct 01, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 238
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 233 - Meeples, Money, and Other Chit Our exploration of board game components continues! In this episode Jake, Brendan, and Paul talk about all the bits in a game! How do decisions about specific tokens and trackers impact the experience of playing a game? Do these production deci...
Sep 24, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 237
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 232 - Brain Burning Decision Spaces and Castles of Mad King Ludwig Pete and Brendan explore what types of games give us that satisfying (and sometimes exhausting) feeling of "brain burn". Why do we like this? Are board gamers a bunch of masochists? Also, we deep dive the classic C...
Sep 17, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 236
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 231 - Dice Are Nice Jake and Brendan present the fourth installment in our component series. This time, they dive deep into dice and all the interesting implications they bring to a game's decision space. Input randomness? We got that. Output randomness? You better believe it! Tim...
Sep 10, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 235
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 230 - Expanding Root Pete and Brendan bring you the jumbo sized sequel to episode 219. We dig into the decision spaces of all six Root expansion factions! We also talk about the new boards and cards. This is our sort of farewell love letter to this amazing game. We ran pretty long...
Sep 03, 2025•1 hr 55 min•Ep. 234
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 229 - Trick-Taking With A Twist Pete and Paul dive deep into the twists behind the modern trick-taking renaissance. How have designers been keeping this centuries old style of card game fresh for players? How far can you twist the decision space of playing into a trick? Listen to ...
Aug 27, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 233
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 228 - Apiary and Positive Player Interaction Jake and Pete do a semi deep dive on Apiary and follow it up with a sort of debate about what does and does not qualify as "positive player interaction." Things get spicy enough that we're already planning a follow-up episode on the top...
Aug 20, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 232
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 227 - All About Boards Jake and Brendan continue our series on game components with a deep dive on BOARDS! What types of boards exist? How do they enhance the experience of playing a game? What are the best boards? Are tiles also boards? Timestamps 5:00- what are boards? 13:30- ne...
Aug 13, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 231
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 226 - Exploring Cardboard Worlds Special guest Dan Thurot of Space Biff joins Pete for a discussion about open worlds games. They get into the different design philosophies of these games in different mediums and use Earthborne Rangers and Vantage as case studies for modern board ...
Aug 06, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 230
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 225 - Best Games of the 2000s In a bit of friendly competition, we attempt to draft the best set of games from the first decade of the century that have stood the test of time. Pete is the real villain of this one. Be sure to hop on discord and vote for the host who drafted the be...
Jul 30, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 229
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 224 - Board Game Junk Food The gang gets slightly unhinged this week discussing what is the board game equivalent of trashy TV. Also Brendan can't stop thinking about Doritos. Game Timestamps 10:05- Hot Streak 15:00- Feudum 16:00- A Feast for Odin 16:45- Agricola: Dead Harvest 19:...
Jul 23, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 228
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 223 - Ode to the Tile In this quite academic episode, Paul goes into full teacher mode with Brendan to discuss the many ways different types of tiles are used in board games. Stay tuned to hear Paul use the term "recreational mathematics" MULTIPLE times! Timestamps 2:00- backgroun...
Jul 16, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 227
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 222 - What have we been playing? In this very chill episode, Jake and Pete discuss some recent plays of some new and old games. Listen for such unexpected topics as: Mac Gerdts designs a rondel game??? Pete talks about a trick-taking game??? Jake plays a Kramer and Kiesling game??...
Jul 09, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 226
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 221 - Balancing for Player Count (WWTA) A game development episode in which Pete, Paul, and Brendan ask the important questions: What makes games flexible or inflexible when it comes to player count? Should a publisher put a suboptimal player count on a box? Are there games that y...
Jul 02, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 225
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 220 - Listener Question Mailbag A loose episode in which Jake, Brendan, and Pete answer such hard hitting questions as: "Why do you play board games?" "What designs are you working on?" "Who is the hottest member of the Fellowship?" Game Timestamps 02:20- Clockwork Wars 03:40- Fis...
Jun 25, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 224
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 219 - Root Deep Dive (part 1) Buckle in for a long one! Pete and Brendan go DEEP on Cole Wehrle's Root. Did Brendan enjoy exploring Pete's favorite game? Is the Vagabond OP? Do the Cats suck? Is this game too hard to learn? Timestamps 3:20- reviews 12:50- game background 18:14- ba...
Jun 18, 2025•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 223
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 218 - Lifestyle Games What we talk about when we talk about lifestyle games. Are they worth sinking all your time and money into? Let's discuss! Timestamps 4:15 what is a lifestyle game? 30:00 what do we like about lifestyle games? 37:00 what do we dislike about lifestyle games? 5...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 222
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 217 - The Wow Factor What makes you stop and say "wow" when playing a game? Listen to Jake workshop his newly patented "Six Kinds of Wow"! Special guest Bill Collins! Game Timestamps 3:00 Vivo 4:10 Anachrony 6:30 Cat in the Box 10:00 Yahtzee 10:30 Just One 11:20 Cryptid 12:00 Arcs...
Jun 04, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 221
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 216 - Innovation and Games without Guard Rails (Look Mom, No Hands!) Look mom, no hands! Brendan and Pete are diving into a discussion without guard rails (games) and then review Carl Chudyk's, Innovation. Timestamps Show Business - 0:00 Games without Guard Rails - 3:08 Innovation...
May 28, 2025•57 min•Ep. 220
SUPPORT ST. LOUIS TORNADO RELIEF EFFORTS HERE - https://foodcitystl.org/ Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 215 - The Laughing Table Friends Played Hot Games at Geekway To the West! Jake alongside fellow Laughing Table Friends members Luke Williams (first time on the pod!) and Jared Ingersoll (returning guest) talk...
May 21, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 219
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 214 - Top 10 Games of All Time of All Hosts in 2025 (5 to 1) We finish off our top 10 lists, counting down from 5 to 1! Timestamps 0:00 - Show Business The Resistance - 3:35 Imhotep - 5:38 Dune Imperium: Uprising - 9:09 Keyflower - 12:30 El Grande - 15:40 Isle of Skye: From Chieft...
May 14, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 218
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 213 - Top 10 Games of All Time of All Hosts in 2025 All four hosts are here to share the first half of our top 10 games of all time lists. That is Paul, Pete, Jake, and Brendan counting down games number ten through six of our lists. Timestamps 0:00 - Show Business 4:05 - Modern A...
May 07, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 217
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 212 - Cooperation, Communication, and Vantage with Jamey Stegmaier Jamey Stegmaier, disc golf enthusiast, omni gamer, and president/CEO of Stonemaier Games, drops by the show to talk about communication in cooperative games with Pete and Jake. We also discuss the upcoming vantage,...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 216
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 211 - Let's Duel! Toy Battle and Dueling Games Get back to basics with Jake and Brendan as we discuss how there are duel games and then there are duel games. Then, we toe tap into the kiddie pool with Toy Battle. Timestamps Show Business - 0:00 Dueling Games - 3:56 Main Topic - 30...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 215
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 210 - Quintessential Pete and Paul Games Get to know the new Decision Space hosts tastes in games. In this episode, these two old friends explore the games that are quintessential to their tastes and where those tastes fall on the decision space spectrum. Timestamps Show Business ...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 214
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 208 - F Is for Filler and Faraway This week's episode, hosted by Pete and featuring Brendan and Paul, asks the question, "Are filler games just bad?" Enjoy this discussion on fillers before transitioning to a quick dip into Faraway. Timestamps Show Business - 0:00 Filler Games - 3...
Apr 09, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 213
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 208 - This Episode Is Broken Welcome back to another episode of Decision Space, the only game that takes place right here, between the episodes of your favorite podcast! Good luck to all of our contestants and happy April Fools day! Timestamps Who Should Go First - 3:07 What's in ...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 212
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 207 - RIP To 3 Dearly Departed Board Games Brendan, Jake, and Pete each share a eulogy for one board game that they once loved, but which is now, sadly, no longer on our table. Funeral attire is strictly enforced. Timestamps Games are Forever - 0:00 Game One (7 Wonders) - 9:30 Gam...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 211
Decision Space is the podcast about decisions in board games. Join our active and welcoming Discord community, Join the crew today! (Decision Space Patreon), or Leave us a review wherever you find this podcast! Episode 206 - What We Talk About When We Talk About If Games Can Be Mean Pete, Brendan, and Jake debate whether games can be mean with our usual sense of decorum and mastery of the oral argument. Timestamps Can Games Be Mean - 0:00 Games Mentioned In the year of the Dragon, Terraforming M...
Mar 19, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 210
